If you walk just under a mile to the north and slightly west of Hanguren’s cable car station you will reach Lake Valbergstjørni. The route is via a defined and easy-to-follow path, over a green and undulating landscape.

Lake Valbergstjørni is a small and relatively secluded tarn at about 2,500 feet. It looked very inviting to me, especially in the 30°C heat.

The fact that I had no swimming trunks or towel didn’t put me off. I stripped down to my boxer shorts, plunged in! The water was icy cold, but after a sweat-inducing walk up it was exactly what I needed.

Getting out, however, was a little problematic. My plan was to remove my boxer shorts, put my walking shorts back on and then head off. Unfortunately, a Norwegian family with small children had set up camp nearby. We Brits tend to have a reputation for unruliness abroad, and I did not want to enhance this reputation by stripping off so close to them. My own family came to the rescue, surrounding me in a close-knit circle so as to hide my…embarassment.

Job done, we headed back to the cable car station. If I ever come back here I’ll go swimming again, but this time I’ll bring a towel and some trunks!

Points on this part of the walk (copy and paste the co-ordinates into Google Earth):